At Dr. Autoimmune, we specialize in Metabolic syndrome and other metabolic disorders which may be expressed in the form of increased blood pressure, high blood sugar, weight gain around the waist, and abnormal cholesterol or triglyceride blood levels. Each of these symptoms increases your risk of heart disease, stroke and type 2 diabetes.
If you have a recent diabetes diagnosis or if you have been playing the weight loss game with no lasting results, keep reading. We have countless success stories from patients who have finally lost weight and kept it off, while reducing A1c levels and blood glucose levels to normal ranges. The impact for these patients is manifested in the freedom from worrying about their health, their weight, and their energy levels. Read more to find out the exact diabetes plan that our patients use.
What is Diabetes Type 1?
Diabetes Type 1 is a chronic autoimmune disease that affects mostly children. However, adult onset diabetes type 1 is more common, as the incidence at which people are developing type 1 diabetes increases 1%2C%20respectively.).
Type 1 differs from type 2 in that it is an autoimmune disease that causes your body to create antibodies that attack your pancreatic cells, which control insulin creation. Insulin is a hormone that is necessary for regulating blood sugar. If you have type 1 diabetes, your body is unable to create insulin, which results in emergent glucose levels in the body. This can cause symptoms such as increased thirst, frequent urination, hunger, fatigue, and blurred vision. But what causes this type of autoimmune disease? Interestingly enough, all autoimmune diseases have a root cause of intestinal permeability, also known as ‘leaky gut’ 2.
What is Diabetes Type 2?
Diabetes Type 2 is a chronic metabolic disease that mostly affects adults, however there are more incidents of child onset diabetes type 2 due to increased obesity rates among all age groups. Type 2 diabetes impairs sugar metabolism through impaired insulin sensitivity, also known as insulin resistance or hyperinsulinemia. This is when insulin can’t properly move glucose out of the blood and into the cell.
This leads to hyperglycemia and the same symptoms as type 1 including excessive thirst and urination, increased hunger, fatigue, weight loss, blurry vision, and slower healing 3.
Factors that contribute most to diabetes type 2 are being overweight and obese, but also leaky gut. “Recent studies investigating the underlying mechanisms involved in disease development in diabetes [type 1 and type2] point to the role of the dysregulation of the intestinal barrier [leaky gut] 4. This is due to increased cytokine production from constant immune activation from bacteria, viruses, and food entering the bloodstream through a leaky gut, which leads to insulin resistance.
Can Diet Reverse Diabetes Type 2?
Research is now showing that reversal can be achieved through lifestyle and dietary changes. Successful studies indicate that a low carbohydrate diet is an effective intervention for glucose control in patients with type 2 diabetes. Along with glucose control, this diet also improved triglycerides and HDL cholesterol concentrations 5, 6, 7. Benefits of a low carbohydrate diet include increased energy expenditure as a result of your metabolism increasing instead of the opposite slower metabolism that occurs when there is a calorie deficit 8. In fact, the effects of low-calorie diets resulted in a reduction in basal metabolic rate 9.
The low carbohydrate diet works well with both type 2 and type 1 diabetes because it reduces the demand for insulin production which is impaired in these diseases. The hormone insulin is released every time protein or carbohydrates are eaten. By increasing dietary intake of fat and moderate protein, blood insulin levels reduce, weight loss occurs, and sensitivity to insulin and other hormones improves. Improved insulin sensitivity reduces the hyperglycemic state and patients can get off of medications, especially exogenous insulin medications which contribute to weight gain 10%20is%20a%20landmark,The%20study%20design%20was%20simple.). Wouldn’t you like to reduce your medications?
Nutritional Diet for Diabetes Type 2
A nutrient dense diet supports the reversal or management of type 2 diabetes through balancing blood glucose levels. By avoiding sugar, refined flours and grains, and toxic oils, glucose levels will spike less and lower insulin levels easily.
Diabetes Diet Plan Type 2
Foods to Eat
- Healthy Fats: fatty fish, grass fed organic animal fats, olives, avocado, coconut, nuts and seeds, grass fed butter/ghee (if tolerated)
- Protein: wild caught fish, grass fed and pastured organic meats, nuts and seeds
- Gut Healing Foods: bone broth, sauerkraut, probiotic foods, prebiotic foods
- Non-starchy Vegetables: all
- Moderate Amount of Starchy Vegetables: sweet potatoes, winter squash, lentils, etc.
- Low Glycemic Fruits: berries, apples, cherries, pears, peaches, apricots, kiwi, pomegranate, grapes
- Increased Whole Salts: himalayan salt or celtic sea salt
Foods to Avoid
- Toxic Oils: corn, canola, cottonseed, soy, sunflower, safflower, grapeseed, and ricebran
- Most or All Grains/Legumes: wheat, corn, rice, gluten free grains, beans, breads, pastas, crackers
- Sugar and Alcohol: cane, high fructose corn, maltodextrin, dextrose, fructose, sucrose, beet sugar, honey, maple syrup
Diabetes Diet Plan Type 1
You can lower the demand for insulin medication for type 1 diabetes on a low glycemic diet. This will help reduce weight gain, the risk for cardiovascular disease and dementia.
Foods to Eat
- Healthy Fats: fatty fish, grass fed organic animal fats, olives, avocado, coconut, nuts and seeds, grass fed butter/ghee (if tolerated)
- Protein: wild caught fish, grass fed and pastured organic meats, nuts and seeds
- Gut healing foods: bone broth, sauerkraut, probiotic foods, prebiotic foods
- Non-starchy vegetables: all
- Moderate amount of starchy vegetables: sweet potatoes, winter squash, lentils, etc.
- Low Glycemic fruits: berries, apples, cherries, pears, peaches, apricots, kiwi, pomegranate, grapes
- Increased Whole Salts: himalayan salt or celtic sea salt
Foods to Avoid
- Toxic Oils: corn, canola, cottonseed, soy, sunflower, safflower, grapeseed, and ricebran
- Most or All Grains/Legumes: wheat, corn, rice, gluten free grains, beans, breads, pastas, crackers
- Sugar: cane, high fructose corn, maltodextrin, dextrose, fructose, sucrose, beet sugar, honey, maple syrup
Diabetes Treatment Plan
- Low Carbohydrate Diet: Limit carbohydrate intake to 45-60 each meal, this is easily achieved if avoiding grains, legumes, and sugar.
- Leaky Gut Support: Nutrients such as l-glutamine, l-arginine, zinc, omega 3 fatty acids, vitamin A and D are shown to prevent and heal intestinal permeability.
- Exercise: Increased muscle mass helps burn stored fat and increases your metabolism. Only 2 days a week of 15 minute slow strength training with weights will help you gain lean muscle mass fast.
- Fasting: “In animal models, intermittent feeding improves insulin sensitivity, prevents obesity caused by a high-fat diet, and ameliorates diabetic retinopathy 11.” Intermittent fasting is the single most important factor in reducing insulin blood levels fast because when you fast your body will burn stored fat and allow insulin levels to lower.
Blood Sugar Monitoring – Dario Blood Glucose Monitoring Device and App help our patients track their blood sugar levels with accuracy and convenience. Each person has a bio-individual glucose response to different foods. What makes one person’s blood sugar spike might not make another person’s blood sugar spike.
